Land-hungry Hong Kong looks for options to house its people

[HONG KONG] Wild boar and water buffalo are not an image most people associate with one of the world's great global financial centres. Yet in Hong Kong, where more than seven million people are packed into just 30 per cent of the territory, the green belts, country parks, woodlands and wetlands that take up the rest of the land provide ample space for such animals to roam.

That could be about to change. As officials scour the territory for new places to build, the prospect of going underground, creating man-made islands or developing the city's cherished parks are all among the options being discussed. One idea is to build a cross-harbour pedestrian corridor - with shops and entertainment facilities along the way - underneath the city's kilometre-wide Victoria Harbour.

Encroaching onto the green spaces has strong support from Hong Kong's powerful property tycoons, who are feeling the heat from a series of tightening measures aimed at reining in prices that have jumped 120 per cent since 2008.